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The other day, I was trying to explain the art of compromise to my daughter. “Government,” I told her, “can’t function without compromise.” Oh right, I thought, bad example, because we aren’t exactly excelling on that front these days. The debate over gun control immediately popped into my head. Because doesn’t it seem like no one is willing to compromise on that front? At all? Ever? On either side? On any part of it?So here goes, my totally irreverent take on what’s going on today…...more

I’m sitting here writing this while hanging out with my good friend, Sandy. Well, we’re not good friends really. To be honest, I think she’s kind of a bitch. I even had to prepare for her visit. And really, Sandy blows. A lot....more

How do you talk to your child about difficult subjects? What do you say when someone passes you in a wheelchair, and your child demands to know (in a very loud voice) why he or she can’t have a cool ride like that? And how about skin color? If it hasn’t come up because your children are too young, be prepared, because it will. People come in every shape, size, and color. Some have two arms and two legs, and some don’t. Some can see, and some can’t. How do you teach your children about people being different?...more

This week, I saw yet another piece online about the evils of helicopter parenting. The gist was something along the lines of how if you know where your kids are at all times it’s a bad thing. Of course, I couldn’t resist a rant....more

I’ve recently ventured back into the land of sleep deprivation. I’m not talking about the regular version of this parental ailment; I’m talking about the fall-on-your-face-you-are-so-tired version you have when your kids are newborns. The thing is…my boys are three....more

This week has been a funny little week – not funny as in ha ha, but funny as in…different. I spent two of the last several days in the emergency room with two different kids. In a strange twist of fate, the two got the exact same injury – a chin laceration that needed to be stitched – on different days and in different ways. So as not to chalk this last week up to a total loss, I have started making a list of the valuable lessons I learned from it. Here are a couple gems I have come up with thus far:...more

Who doesn’t like a good scare – and by scare, I mean a good old-fashioned ghost story, not the scare you get when you realize that your three year old left the playground without telling you, which by the by, happened to me this week. But I digress....more

Can we talk kids sports for a minute? It’s the Olympics after all, and those athletes likely started young. I have a love-hate relationship with kids sports. First the love – they keep kids active – and equally as important – out of the house. They help kids improve their coordination, foster their sense of teamwork, and learn the importance of healthy bodies. On the downside, they are expensive, they require you to be an on-call chauffeur, and they are a huge time suck. Oh yes, and have I mentioned the sports parents?...more

The question of whether or not our kids should be taught that they are special has come up a lot recently. Should we tell our kids they are special? Should we tell them they aren’t special and have to earn that title? To muddy the waters even further, this whole discussion of whether or not our children are ‘special’ has been taking place within the ongoing hoopla of whether or not helicopter parenting is turning the next generation of children into a needy and helpless band of wastrels who wouldn’t make it out of the first round of the Hunger Games....more

I try to avoid the news. Okay, not all the news -- just the news that talks about cannibals eating someone’s face off or something along those lines. I mean, dear Lord, is it really necessary to run a headline on that story and then put a warning about graphic photos? Does the world really need to see graphic photos of a man whose face was eaten off by a cannibal? I’m going to go out on a limb and say…no. I did, however, break my no-sensational-story rule when I saw the headline, “Texas dad beats 4-year-old daughter's alleged attacker to death” in the Los Angeles Times....more